The UTD Mercury

Issue date: 8/25/08 Section: News

CORRECTION: Maria Islam served as the Student Government Executive Committee secretary - a paid position - during the 2006-07 school year. In the recap below, she is incorrectly described as the 2006-07 SG Executive Committee chair.

Get caught up on all the news that happened during summer! Here's a roundup of campus stories students might have missed.

Bielawski replaces SG VP Islam

Grace Bielawski was elected to replace Student Government (SG) vice president Maria Islam May 20 after university officials discovered Islam was not eligible for employment in the United States.

UTD administrators consulted UT System lawyers, who were unable to find any rules or exceptions that would permit Islam to remain SG vice president.

"There's nothing explicit (in the SG Election Code) about any sort of pay or work requirement," Islam said. "I stepped down because they asked me to… You can't volunteer for a position that was once paid, so I can't serve on the Executive Committee either."

Islam, a biochemistry senior, served as the SG Executive Committee chair - a paid position - during the 2006-07 school year.

Dean of Students Donna Rogers said allowing Islam to be paid previously was an oversight and safeguards will be added to verify students are eligible to work for the school.

SG senate nominated three candidates from within its ranks to take the post. Political science sophomore Bielawski defeated SG Residential Student Affairs Committee chair Karen Hinkley, a psychology senior, and SG Technology Committee chair Cody Eilrich, an electrical engineering senior.

-Reported May 23

Jonsson to offer mechanical engineering in fall 2008

This fall, students in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering can major in mechanical engineering (ME).

The first and second imperatives of UTD president David Daniel's Strategic Plan call on the university to double its faculty size and increase the student body by 5,000. Senior Associate Dean of Operations and Finance Andrew Blanchard said he expects the ME program to attract 800 students by the third year and eventually to match electrical engineering program in size.

"We, as an engineering school, have always recognized the need to expand, and when Dr. Daniel arrived, the discussion became concrete," Blanchard said.

Blanchard said UTD faculty debated between ME and a possible civil engineering department, because those are the two largest groups of engineers in the country. Also, almost all other engineering schools have both departments, he said. In the end, mechanical engineering won out, because a new civil engineering department would have faced very stiff competition from other universities in the region, said Blanchard.

"Mechanical engineering is a very stable discipline. Things like computer or electrical engineering can fluctuate with the economy, but there's a constant need for mechanical engineers," Blanchard said.

ME courses will initially be taught by current faculty. Blanchard said the Jonsson School will add 25-35 new faculty in the next couple of years.

-Reported June 23

Dirt flies for new dining hall

UTD's first cafeteria-style dining hall is currently under construction between the Student Union and the Engineering/Computer Science buildings.

The $37.8 million dining facility will have a capacity of about 550 students and is expected to open in August 2009, said Vice President of Business Affairs Calvin Jamison.

"Thus far, we are going to be on target to open up in early-to-mid August (2009). We're pushing that schedule so both the dining and residence hall will come on line at the same time," Jamison said.

-Reported July 14

IR searches to outsource email services

Information Resources (IR) may outsource campus e-mail services to a third-party provider as early as this fall, according to Jim Gary, vice president and chief information officer for IR.

Student Government (SG) technology chair and electrical engineering major Cody Eilrich compared services offered by three possible third-party email providers, including Zimbra, a Yahoo! company; Google Apps; and Microsoft Exchange labs, during a SG meeting on June 3.

Eilrich said several students expressed a preference for Google, but his recommendation would be based on qualitative differences between the providers.

-Reported July 14

Dallas International School moves students to CB

High schoolers will call the UTD campus their own Aug. 25, as Dallas International School (DIS) students begin their academic year in the Classroom Building (CB).

DIS administrators will move ninth through 12th grades from their campus on Churchill Way in Dallas into CB this fall to ease overcrowding. DIS will lease CB for two years and will construct a permanent facility at a time not yet established on 13.8 acres traded to the school by UTD, according to Executive Vice President and Provost Hobson Wildenthal.

In return, UTD received a 20.6 acre parcel of land to the north of the UTD campus across the railroad tracks, said Calvin Jamison, vice president for business affairs. The trade was finalized in early June.

The DIS enrolls students as young as 3 years old for preschool classes, Wildenthal said, meaning faculty and staff would have access to child care and private education near campus. DIS tuition ranges from $9,600 for pre-school to $15,400 for high school, according to the school's Web site, www.distexas.org.

DIS high school students will attend their physical education classes in the Activity Center, have limited library privileges, may be using science labs, have identification cards and DART passes and could be taking meals in the new Food Services building when it is completed, said Wildenthal.

Wildenthal said the administration considered enrolling all the students, but their status as minors - some of them international students - brought additional complications. He said the students will likely be given an affiliate status with details to be determined.

-Reported Aug. 4

Spong new engineering dean

Mark W. Spong succeeded Robert Helms as dean of the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering after Helms' five-yearstint as dean concluded.

Helms said he will remain a faculty member at UTD and plans to research before he begins teaching again. Helms oversaw the construction of the Natural Science and Engineering Research Laboratory (NSERL) building as dean, and his new office will be located in that building.

Spong, who worked with President David Daniel at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, took over Helms's postion on Aug. 16.

-Reported Aug. 4

Chartwells rides Subway to UTD

New changes in the Comet Café are underway after Aramark, UTD's longtime food service vendor, lost a renewal bid to competitor Chartwells.

The transition between Aramark and Chartwells should be completed within a couple of years, with many of the dining concepts in place by the end of the fall 2009 semester, according to Keith Foreman, director of dining services. Chartwells will also assist in running The Pub.

Of the current franchises available at the Comet Café, only Chick-Fil-A will remain. Foreman said Pizza Hut has agreed to remain onsite during the transition, but will eventually be replaced by Chartwells' own pizza concept, Mama Leone's.

Subway will also be included among the franchises available to students at the Comet Café.

According to Pete Bond, assistant vice president for procurement management at UTD, students' desire for a Subway outlet at UTD played a part in the administration's decision to go with Chartwells.

-Reported Aug. 4

Network intrusion exposes potential personal info leak

Personal information may have been exposed for 9,100 students and faculty affiliated with UTD from 2000-03 due to a computer network intrusion discovered on July 12, according to Information Resources officials.

Names, addresses, Social Security numbers, e-mail addresses and telephone numbers may have been exposed, according to an IR announcement July 31 and e-mails sent to students and faculty.

Notifications have been mailed and emailed to those who may be affected, said Susan Rogers, vice president for communications.

In a July 31 e-mail to students and faculty, Jim Gary, vice president and chief information officer of IR, said there was no reason to believe any information had been disclosed. The breach necessitated a campus-wide NetID password reset in late July.

Several pages of information addressing the breach can be viewed at www.utdallas.edu/infosecurity, where potentially affected students and faculty were advised to place a fraud alert on their credit reports and directed to a UTD Web site with more information.

According to that site, the information was from a back up hard drive saved on a computer "identified as having been put at risk." The information predates the current information system, implemented 2005, which created an identification number to replace Social Security numbers.

-Reported Aug. 4

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